05/14/2009

statutory or constitutional device enacted by seven Southern states between 1895 and 1910 to deny suffrage to American blacks; it provided that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1866 or 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting. Because the former slaves had not been granted the franchise until the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, these clauses worked effectively to exclude blacks from the vote but assured the franchise to many impoverished and illiterate whites. In 1915 the Supreme Court declared the grandfather clause unconstitutional because it violated equal voting rights guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment.

04/22/2009

04/15/2009

When I had left camp that morning I had not expected so soon the result that was then taking place, and consequently was in rough garb. I was without a sword, as I usually was when on horseback on the field, and wore a soldier's blouse for a coat, with the shoulder straps of my rank to indicate to the army who I was. When I went into the house I found General Lee. We greeted each other, and after shaking hands took our seats. I had my staff with me, a good portion of whom were in the room during the whole of the interview.

What General Lee's feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us.

General Lee was dressed in a full uniform which was entirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the sword which had been presented by the State of Virginia; at all events, it was an entirely different sword from the one that would ordinarily be worn in the field. In my rough traveling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of faultless form. But this was not a matter that I thought of until afterwards.

We soon fell into a conversation about old army times. He remarked that he remembered me very well in the old army; and I told him that as a matter of course I remembered him perfectly, but from the difference in our rank and years (there being about sixteen years' difference in our ages), I had thought it very likely that I had not attracted his attention sufficiently to be remembered by him after such a long interval. Our conversation grew so pleasant that I almost forgot the object of our meeting.

After the conversation had run on in this style for some time, General Lee called my attention to the object of our meeting, and said that he had asked for this interview for the purpose of getting from me the terms I proposed to give his army. I said that I meant merely that his army should lay down their arms, not to take them up again during the continuance of the war unless duly and properly exchanged. He said that he had so understood my letter. Then we gradually fell off again into conversation about matters foreign to the subject which had brought us together. This continued for some little time, when General Lee again interrupted the course of the conversation by suggesting that the terms I proposed to give his army ought to be written out.

09/04/2008

About a month later Lee was summoned to Washington to report to General
Scott and reached the capital on the 1st of March, only a few days
before the inauguration of Lincoln.
He was then just fifty-four years of age, and dating from his cadetship
at West Point had been in the military service of the government about
thirty-six years. He had reached the exact prime of maturity; in form,
features, and general bearing the type of magnificent manhood; educated
to thoroughness; cultivated by extensive reading, wide experience, and
contact with the great men of the period; with a dauntless bravery
tested and improved by military perils in many battles; his skill in
war recognized as of the highest order by comrades and commanders; and
withal a patriot in whom there was no guile and a man without reproach.
Bearing this record and character, Lee appeared at the capital of the
country he loved, hoping that wisdom in its counsels would avert
coercion and that this policy would lead to reunion. Above all others
he was the choice of General Scott for the command of the United States
army; and the aged hero seems to have earnestly urged the supreme
command upon him. Francis P. Blair also invited him to a conference and
said, "I come to you on the part of President Lincoln
to ask whether any inducement that he can offer will prevail on you to
take command of the Union army." To this alluring offer Lee at once
replied courteously but candidly that though "opposed to secession and
deprecating war he would take no part in the invasion of the Southern
States." His resignation
followed at once, and repairing to Virginia, he placed his stainless
sword at the service of his imperiled State and accepted the command of
her military forces. The commission was presented to him in the
presence of the Virginia convention on April 23, 1861, by Mr. Janney,
the president of that body, with ceremonies of great impressiveness,
and General Lee entered at once upon duties which absorbed his thought
and engaged his heart. The position thus assigned confined him at first
to a narrowed area, but he diligently organized the military strength
of Virginia and surveyed the field over which he foresaw the battles
for the Confederacy would be fought. As late as April 25 he wrote, "No
earthly act would give me so much pleasure as to restore peace to my
country, but I fear it is now out of the power of man, and in God alone
must be our trust. I think our policy should be purely on the
defensive, to resist aggression and allow time to allay the passions
and permit reason to resume her sway."

Thus Robert E. Lee became the only person in recorded history to be offered the command of both armies in a major war.

08/19/2008

Today four monuments or markers commemorate Jackson’s fate. Two, a simple quartz boulder and a more elaborate granite column, mark the area on the Chancellorsville battlefield where Confederate musket fire struck and wounded the general. Another stands beside the small building where he died eight days later. The fourth, however, is possibly the most unusual, if not the oddest, memorial erected on any battlefield from the war.

In a small family cemetery on the Ellwood plantation, located on the eastern edge of Orange County, Va., stands a simple granite marker. It is the only marker in the cemetery, but it does not memorial­ize any of the family burials there. Carved into the face of the stone is “Arm of Stonewall Jackson, May 3, 1863.”

Following Jackson’s amputation, the Reverend Beverley Tucker Lacy, the un­official chaplain of Jackson’s Second Corps, paid a visit to the hospital, where he discovered his chief’s amputated limb. Lacy wrapped it in a blanket and rode the one mile to his brother’s home, Ellwood. There, he buried the severed limb in the family cemetery. In later years another member of Jackson’s staff, Lieutenant James Power Smith, settled in Fredericksburg and married a member of the Lacy family. In 1903 Smith placed 10 granite monu­ments on the local battlefields to mark important locations. One of those­ markers is the one that now stands in Ellwood’s cemetery.

06/01/2008

History has not been kind to McClellan or the Democrats he served. McClellan did not serve his nation or the principles of liberty upon which his nation was founded. He had a chance for greatness, but his self-importance got in the way. There is no “McClellan Memorial,” nor should there be. Tenacious and loyal lieutenants of Lincoln like Grant and Sherman would earn a place in history. Sherman, unlike McClellan, was so lacking in personal ambition that the political phrase “Shermanesque” has become associated with complete rejection of crowns of office (“If nominated I will not run. If elected I will not serve.”) Grant spent the end of his life writing magnificent memoirs, as he was painfully dying, so that his family would not live in poverty. Those lieutenants of Lincoln, although not perfect, were real men, great men, noble men, men of history. McClellan is only remembered as a disloyal, self-centered whiner.

During George's childhood, one of the best friends of the Patton family was none-other-than Colonel John S. Mosby, the fabled "Grey Ghost" of J.E.B. Stuart's legendary cavalry. Patton grew up hearing tales of daring raids and stunning cavalry attacks from the Grey Ghost himself. During visits to the Patton Ranch in Southern California, Colonel Mosby would re-enact the Civil War with George; playing himself, he let George play the part of General Lee as they would recount the battles of the war, astride their horses.

These firsthand stories, and horseback re-enactments, directed by one of the greatest Guerilla fighters of all time no doubt had a huge influence on Patton. Both his sense of bravery and duty, and his Guerilla like tactics were no doubt heavily influenced by his early exploits with John S. Mosby.

It's interesting to contemplate that with all his other accomplishments, Mosby's most lasting legacy might be those hours spent playing with a young boy. And it's as true today as it was back then: You Just Never Know. (H/T: My Brother Tim)

Waddell took his ship through the south Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean, capturing nine U.S. flag merchant vessels between late October and the end of 1864. All but two of these were sunk or burned. In late January 1865, Shenandoah arrived at Melbourne, Australia, where she was able to receive necessary repairs and provisions, as well as adding more than forty "stowaways" to her very short-handed crew. Following three weeks in port, the cruiser put to sea, initially planning to attack the American south Pacific whaling fleet.

However, discovering that his intended targets had been warned and dispersed, Waddell set off for the north Pacific. He stopped in the Eastern Carolines at the beginning of April, seizing four Union merchantmen there and using their supplies to stock up for further operations. While Shenandoah cruised northwards in April and May, the Confederacy collapsed, but this news would spread very slowly through the distant Pacific. Following a month in the Sea of Okhotsk that yielded one prize and considerable experience in ice navigation, she moved on to the Bering Sea. There, between 22 and 28 June 1865 the now-stateless warship captured two-dozen vessels, destroying all but a few. Soon afterwards, Waddell started a slow voyage towards San Francisco, California, which he believed would be weakly defended against his cruiser's guns.

Though Shenandoah's late June assault on the whaling fleet was accompanied by many rumors of the Civil War's end, she did not receive a firm report until 2 August 1865, when she encountered an English sailing ship that had left San Francisco less than two weeks before. Waddell then disarmed his ship and set sail for England. Shenandoah rounded Cape Horn in mid-September and arrived at Liverpool in early November, becoming the only Confederate Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe. There she hauled down the Confederate Ensign and was turned over to the Royal Navy. In 1866 the ship was sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar and renamed El Majidi. She was variously reported lost at sea in September 1872 or in 1879.